Stand With Sweet Release

By Kristine Bartley

video

PledgeMe.Project

Food,



NZ $6,075 pledged


122 people pledged


Closed


NZ $42,000 minimum target


14 14% Complete

This campaign failed to reach its target by 31/10/2015 at 7:00 PM (NZDT) and is now closed.

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About

Stand With Sweet Release

Project 2015-09-27 18:10:14 +1300

The details

Hi I'm Kris, and I'm the owner of Sweet Release Cakes and Treats. We’ve been been operating in the Capital Markets since August 2014. Our landlord is “Willis Street Parking Limited” whose Directors are Michael Chow and John Chow.

 

Store photo.jpg

Pretty much since day one we’ve had a dispute with said landlords. It’s still ongoing. It’s getting a bit silly.

 

We have sought legal advice. Unfortunately there are so many  points of disagreements that we can’t just go to the Disputes Tribunal.

 

Sadly, this means we need to escalate the case to the District Court. This is going to cost an estimated $42,000 based on the District Court Scale Costs. This will hopefully mean we can settle our issues. We will either stay in the premise with the conditions we were promised, or break our lease and move (with the acknowledgement that we’ve lost money installing a commercial kitchen in a premise we no longer use).  

 

We need your help.

 

We need to raise $42,000 to stand up for ourselves.

 

So why should you help us? Sweet Release started as baking therapy during my treatment for Graves Disease. It was a big help with dealing with this lifetime illness. It helped me get my life back to “normal” and following radiation treatment, I decided to pursue baking as a career. It was one of the best things to come out of my illness. I love being able to experiment with treats and helping the community through the shop. That was a big scary leap from IT where I was working for 10 years.

 

Journey of Hope baking classes.jpg

 

As well as baking yummy cakes and treats Sweet Release gives back to our community

  • We offer free baking classes to people with an illness thanks to the help from Journey of Hope.

  • We have a work experience program with Active to help intellectually disabled youth transition into workplaces.

  • We are a part of a network of bakers delivering free baked goods to charities around Wellington.
     

Brownie pics.jpg

 

Sweet release is a small local business. I started it to follow my dreams and I now employ one full time and two part time staff. Small businesses are often run by passionate business owners who wants to share their creations with you. When you buy from a small business, you are helping someone pay their bills, you are creating jobs for people in your community and encouraging them to continue doing what they love.

 

Making a stand

We believe that we are being taken advantage of so we’re making a stand.  Some small business owners have been through similar situations but the cost of legal fees has kept them quiet.

 

We cannot do this without your help.

 

We are going to work our asses off to make this stand against the Chow Brothers. This issue has been going on so long, we just want sweet release for Sweet Release!

 

Making our goal means we can make this stand. It means other stallholders in the city market might be inspired to make a stand too (unsurprisingly we’re not the only ones having problems with the landlords). Most of all it means we can keep on baking you delicious cakes and bringing treats to Wellingtonians.

 

The great thing about having a cake store is that the rewards are always sweet. So check them out over there →

 

We want you to be rewarded for pledging so raise your middle finger with us and hit the reward you want with it.

 

Many, many thanks

 

Kris and the team

 


Team Photo.jpg

 

PS: Please spread the word! Get tweeting with the hashtag #SWSR and use the short url for this campaign pldg.me/swsr. Follow us on Twitter at @SweetReleaseWLG and @ us when you're spreading the word!

 

Comments

Updates 4

You need to pledge to see this update.

You need to pledge to see this update.

Third day of campaign update

30/09/2015 at 5:44 PM

Hi everyone

We're now on the third day of our campaign with nearly $3k pledged.

Thank you to everyone that continues to show their support via visits to the shop, messages, sharing our campaign and pledging.

We believe and have been advised by our lawyer that we have a strong case...we just need the funds to take action! So many big corporate companies think it's ok to treat small businesses like this knowing they won't have funds to take action against them but platforms like Pledgeme is changing that scene with your help!

Two weeks ago, our landlords notified us that our rent has now more than doubled due to a "market evaluation" and after speaking to a few other stallholders, we found out that we are the only ones that has received this rent increase, as far as we know. This is effective as of tomorrow. Two weeks notice doesn't seem fair does it? It is in dispute. If you believe that this particular dispute is not fair, please continue to share and pledge towards our campaign so we don't have to deal with this sort of behavior from them anymore.

Thanks again everyone.

 

xx

Sweet Release Team

 

 

 

 

 

The beginning...hot water

28/09/2015 at 3:22 PM

With the project now live for a couple hours, let me take you through the beginning...

Note that this is only one out of the many issues we are in dispute over.

Before we signed the lease, we were told many times by the two Property Managers, Steven Zhu and Justin Chang (now ex property manager and owns Where's Charlie and Fish n Chips shop in Capital Market) that hot water was ready to go and all we needed to do was install sinks.

Literally on my first day of the lease, we encountered an issue. There was no hot water or plumbing in the shops I was allocated. My plumber called the architect and after some investigation, it was confirmed that there were no pipes or hot water. Steven continued to say that hot water was there and even came on site to show me pipes. In order to get opened on time, I gave the plumbers to go ahead with what needed to happen to get us open and sort out those issues out later.

We have been disputing this case for awhile now as they have since denied promising the hot water being available at all. Justin even went as far as writing a legal letter advising that he never made those promises and that he was onsite when I signed my lease to confirm the other property manager Steven never made other promises now also in dispute...he wasn't on site when I signed my lease. I asked him why he wrote that letter fully knowing he wasn't there and his reply was "just looking out for himself to stay on the good side of the Chow Brothers". Poor Justin must have forgotten that a friend of mine came on site that day and while she was waiting for me, he also told her that all we had to do was put sinks in. He left to go to an outside appointment when I arrived to sign my lease. That friend has written a letter confirming of her conversation with him and that he left before I signed my lease to back us up in court.

 

 

    Pledgers 122

    Denise Garland
    31/10/2015 at 3:17pm
    Kirk Jackson
    30/10/2015 at 7:46am
    Jess Ducey
    29/10/2015 at 12:37pm

    "Vive la revolution!"

    Mary Little
    29/10/2015 at 9:03am

    "Good luck, team."

    Kylie Agnew
    28/10/2015 at 4:53pm
    Anonymous pledger
    27/10/2015 at 11:07am
    Maricris Bernal
    27/10/2015 at 1:46am

    "Go Kris! You give so much to the community! If only we had more $$$. "

    Anna Kirtlan
    23/10/2015 at 2:19pm
    Anonymous pledger
    23/10/2015 at 12:41pm
    Anonymous pledger
    23/10/2015 at 11:31am
    David Nind
    22/10/2015 at 11:48pm
    Alice
    22/10/2015 at 2:57pm
    Anonymous pledger
    22/10/2015 at 2:08pm

    "Money or not, it's the principle behind this that matters. All the best."

    Erika Baxter
    22/10/2015 at 11:24am
    Aaron Wells
    21/10/2015 at 11:17am
    Anonymous pledger
    20/10/2015 at 10:34am
    Anonymous pledger
    19/10/2015 at 3:15pm
    Stacey
    19/10/2015 at 1:13pm

    "Kia kaha"

    Liz Rea
    19/10/2015 at 12:08pm
    Catherine
    17/10/2015 at 6:10pm

    " A great business and giving back with the baking classes, is so fantastic. So proud of you girl & so glad you have new premises."

    David Fraser
    16/10/2015 at 7:33pm
    Joe Newman
    13/10/2015 at 5:23pm

    "You go guys! "

    Anonymous pledger
    13/10/2015 at 2:29pm
    rodelyn avila
    13/10/2015 at 11:55am

    "So sad to hear you have to go through this, look after yourself xx"

    Jason Locke
    13/10/2015 at 10:46am
    Kirsty Joiner
    12/10/2015 at 8:03pm

    "Good luck with your many battles! All the best with taking a stand! Go Girl!"

    Zef
    12/10/2015 at 6:28pm
    Beau
    12/10/2015 at 5:08pm
    Anonymous pledger
    12/10/2015 at 10:27am
    Anonymous pledger
    11/10/2015 at 9:09pm

    Stand With Sweet Release

    Project 2015-09-27 18:10:14 +1300

    The details

    Hi I'm Kris, and I'm the owner of Sweet Release Cakes and Treats. We’ve been been operating in the Capital Markets since August 2014. Our landlord is “Willis Street Parking Limited” whose Directors are Michael Chow and John Chow.

     

    Store photo.jpg

    Pretty much since day one we’ve had a dispute with said landlords. It’s still ongoing. It’s getting a bit silly.

     

    We have sought legal advice. Unfortunately there are so many  points of disagreements that we can’t just go to the Disputes Tribunal.

     

    Sadly, this means we need to escalate the case to the District Court. This is going to cost an estimated $42,000 based on the District Court Scale Costs. This will hopefully mean we can settle our issues. We will either stay in the premise with the conditions we were promised, or break our lease and move (with the acknowledgement that we’ve lost money installing a commercial kitchen in a premise we no longer use).  

     

    We need your help.

     

    We need to raise $42,000 to stand up for ourselves.

     

    So why should you help us? Sweet Release started as baking therapy during my treatment for Graves Disease. It was a big help with dealing with this lifetime illness. It helped me get my life back to “normal” and following radiation treatment, I decided to pursue baking as a career. It was one of the best things to come out of my illness. I love being able to experiment with treats and helping the community through the shop. That was a big scary leap from IT where I was working for 10 years.

     

    Journey of Hope baking classes.jpg

     

    As well as baking yummy cakes and treats Sweet Release gives back to our community

    • We offer free baking classes to people with an illness thanks to the help from Journey of Hope.

    • We have a work experience program with Active to help intellectually disabled youth transition into workplaces.

    • We are a part of a network of bakers delivering free baked goods to charities around Wellington.
       

    Brownie pics.jpg

     

    Sweet release is a small local business. I started it to follow my dreams and I now employ one full time and two part time staff. Small businesses are often run by passionate business owners who wants to share their creations with you. When you buy from a small business, you are helping someone pay their bills, you are creating jobs for people in your community and encouraging them to continue doing what they love.

     

    Making a stand

    We believe that we are being taken advantage of so we’re making a stand.  Some small business owners have been through similar situations but the cost of legal fees has kept them quiet.

     

    We cannot do this without your help.

     

    We are going to work our asses off to make this stand against the Chow Brothers. This issue has been going on so long, we just want sweet release for Sweet Release!

     

    Making our goal means we can make this stand. It means other stallholders in the city market might be inspired to make a stand too (unsurprisingly we’re not the only ones having problems with the landlords). Most of all it means we can keep on baking you delicious cakes and bringing treats to Wellingtonians.

     

    The great thing about having a cake store is that the rewards are always sweet. So check them out over there →

     

    We want you to be rewarded for pledging so raise your middle finger with us and hit the reward you want with it.

     

    Many, many thanks

     

    Kris and the team

     


    Team Photo.jpg

     

    PS: Please spread the word! Get tweeting with the hashtag #SWSR and use the short url for this campaign pldg.me/swsr. Follow us on Twitter at @SweetReleaseWLG and @ us when you're spreading the word!

     

    Comments

    You need to pledge to see this update.

    You need to pledge to see this update.

    Third day of campaign update

    30/09/2015 at 5:44 PM

    Hi everyone

    We're now on the third day of our campaign with nearly $3k pledged.

    Thank you to everyone that continues to show their support via visits to the shop, messages, sharing our campaign and pledging.

    We believe and have been advised by our lawyer that we have a strong case...we just need the funds to take action! So many big corporate companies think it's ok to treat small businesses like this knowing they won't have funds to take action against them but platforms like Pledgeme is changing that scene with your help!

    Two weeks ago, our landlords notified us that our rent has now more than doubled due to a "market evaluation" and after speaking to a few other stallholders, we found out that we are the only ones that has received this rent increase, as far as we know. This is effective as of tomorrow. Two weeks notice doesn't seem fair does it? It is in dispute. If you believe that this particular dispute is not fair, please continue to share and pledge towards our campaign so we don't have to deal with this sort of behavior from them anymore.

    Thanks again everyone.

     

    xx

    Sweet Release Team

     

     

     

     

     

    The beginning...hot water

    28/09/2015 at 3:22 PM

    With the project now live for a couple hours, let me take you through the beginning...

    Note that this is only one out of the many issues we are in dispute over.

    Before we signed the lease, we were told many times by the two Property Managers, Steven Zhu and Justin Chang (now ex property manager and owns Where's Charlie and Fish n Chips shop in Capital Market) that hot water was ready to go and all we needed to do was install sinks.

    Literally on my first day of the lease, we encountered an issue. There was no hot water or plumbing in the shops I was allocated. My plumber called the architect and after some investigation, it was confirmed that there were no pipes or hot water. Steven continued to say that hot water was there and even came on site to show me pipes. In order to get opened on time, I gave the plumbers to go ahead with what needed to happen to get us open and sort out those issues out later.

    We have been disputing this case for awhile now as they have since denied promising the hot water being available at all. Justin even went as far as writing a legal letter advising that he never made those promises and that he was onsite when I signed my lease to confirm the other property manager Steven never made other promises now also in dispute...he wasn't on site when I signed my lease. I asked him why he wrote that letter fully knowing he wasn't there and his reply was "just looking out for himself to stay on the good side of the Chow Brothers". Poor Justin must have forgotten that a friend of mine came on site that day and while she was waiting for me, he also told her that all we had to do was put sinks in. He left to go to an outside appointment when I arrived to sign my lease. That friend has written a letter confirming of her conversation with him and that he left before I signed my lease to back us up in court.

     

     

      Denise Garland
      31/10/2015 at 3:17pm
      Kirk Jackson
      30/10/2015 at 7:46am
      Jess Ducey
      29/10/2015 at 12:37pm

      "Vive la revolution!"

      Mary Little
      29/10/2015 at 9:03am

      "Good luck, team."

      Kylie Agnew
      28/10/2015 at 4:53pm
      Anonymous pledger
      27/10/2015 at 11:07am
      Maricris Bernal
      27/10/2015 at 1:46am

      "Go Kris! You give so much to the community! If only we had more $$$. "

      Anna Kirtlan
      23/10/2015 at 2:19pm
      Anonymous pledger
      23/10/2015 at 12:41pm
      Anonymous pledger
      23/10/2015 at 11:31am
      David Nind
      22/10/2015 at 11:48pm
      Alice
      22/10/2015 at 2:57pm
      Anonymous pledger
      22/10/2015 at 2:08pm

      "Money or not, it's the principle behind this that matters. All the best."

      Erika Baxter
      22/10/2015 at 11:24am
      Aaron Wells
      21/10/2015 at 11:17am
      Anonymous pledger
      20/10/2015 at 10:34am
      Anonymous pledger
      19/10/2015 at 3:15pm
      Stacey
      19/10/2015 at 1:13pm

      "Kia kaha"

      Liz Rea
      19/10/2015 at 12:08pm
      Catherine
      17/10/2015 at 6:10pm

      " A great business and giving back with the baking classes, is so fantastic. So proud of you girl & so glad you have new premises."

      David Fraser
      16/10/2015 at 7:33pm
      Joe Newman
      13/10/2015 at 5:23pm

      "You go guys! "

      Anonymous pledger
      13/10/2015 at 2:29pm
      rodelyn avila
      13/10/2015 at 11:55am

      "So sad to hear you have to go through this, look after yourself xx"

      Jason Locke
      13/10/2015 at 10:46am
      Kirsty Joiner
      12/10/2015 at 8:03pm

      "Good luck with your many battles! All the best with taking a stand! Go Girl!"

      Zef
      12/10/2015 at 6:28pm
      Beau
      12/10/2015 at 5:08pm
      Anonymous pledger
      12/10/2015 at 10:27am
      Anonymous pledger
      11/10/2015 at 9:09pm
      This campaign was unsuccessful and finished on 31/10/2015 at 7:00 PM.